Ok, in my last blog entry, I concluded that online content writing that pays through ad revenue isn’t the best match for me. I think I understand why now.
- Many of the articles I write are too well researched, and too time consuming to make it worth my while in this type of venue. My stuff on kindergarten readiness, the US school system's push to get kids to read before brain development is where it needs to be and learning issues as a consequence are examples of that pitfall.
2. Shorter is better in the online format. Many short articles earn better than one long one—you reach more people that way. Also, people getting articles thru social networking media, etc. aren’t likely invested enough to want to consume a lengthy piece of journalism. But it takes me LONGER to write a short article. Shortening my work to fit the online article consumer’s attention span takes me longer than I should really spend, and longer than I have, in the reality of my stay-at-home-mom life where writing is stuffed into the seams of my day.
So if I’m going to succeed and not just feel like the system abused me, taking many good, quality articles in return for chump change, I’ve got to change how I write for them.
- Cut down on the time invested in each article. It’s getting me just a little extra monthly income, so I should only be putting in a little extra writing.
- Write only what comes easily--I must if I am to use less time. If I need to do a lot research in order to write it, then it’s not an article I should publish through Triond or Xomba. If, however, I’m already learning about something, my brain is engaged, and the research is not “extra” and just for the purpose of writing the article, then I could write about it for a content website.
I think I recently did this successfully, twice. I read about two different topics in my interest zone, and seeing the info was not online already, but only in my grad school alumni magazine, I decided they were good topics others would be interested in: autism and green tea’s benefits. I did do a quick search on the CDC’s website for some statistics about Autism to write the one article, but otherwise, I did not put in any significant time into research.
- Leave it long or consider breaking it into two—but taking the time to cut it to be more concise is not always in my best interest. (Unless it is burdensomely long through lazy writing, in which case I should just cut my losses and leave it unpublished.) Shortening articles often takes me MORE TIME than writing it in the first place!
- If there’s something I really want to write and the effort it’d require goes against all my wise restrictions to guard my time and not sell myself out, I may publish it through online websites anyway if I really believe, altruistically, that the info just needs to be out there. I once realized an aspect of my writing was really becoming public service—like my article on when miscarriage turns out to be labor. I believe so strongly an article on that needed to be on the internet, because that is where I searched and searched for answers when it happened to me, and I could find nothing. For similar reasons, I recently wrote a series of articles on vulvodynia—how treatments were like throwing darts in the dark, what natural alternatives are available, how it destroys marriages, and how for so long it was treated as a psychiatric disorder. Because there just is not a lot of coverage on it, I felt the need to fill the gap.
Ok, maybe I'll give it another whirl, reducing the time I spend in this type of publishing, to give more time to traditional print magazines.
Some people say they do really well in this type of freelancing. Below is an article written by an online writer friend about all the different venues that pay to write. If it works, great, but I have to challenge myself to reevaluate constantly. When you get only a couple hours to write a day, the time is too precious to waste!
30 sites to write and earn: http://www.xomba.com/where_you_can_write_and_blog_30_sites_make_money_web
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